All Because Of A Book
by YouHaveNoIdeaWhatImCapableOf
Summary: Draco has a mission to complete.


**Main Theme: Blocking- write about a character trying to block the success of another**

**Bonus: Gringotts(main), hurricane, Pansy Parkinson**

**Word Count: 2,276**

Draco Malfoy waited impatiently in line at Gringotts. All of the goblins were busy at the moment, and everyone was too focused on their own holiday errands that no one noticed him or offered to let him pass because he was a Malfoy. He was unused to such treatment.

With nothing else to do, he pulled the letter he'd gotten last week and reread it. He'd read it so many times, it was crumpled up and barely legible.

_Dear Mr. Malfoy,_

_Your order of _Extreme Repairs for Badly Damaged Magical furniture _by Bradislav Zindurian has been assumed lost during a recent hurricane on the way to England from Yugoslavia. Would you like to place a new order with us?_

_We are sorry for the inconvenience._

_Harlequin Booksellers_

He couldn't believe that this had happened. What was worse, he didn't have enough Galleons to buy another copy as it was extremely expensive. No wonder, the charms and procedures described within were extremely rare and difficult to perform; some of them were even Dark spells.

With a sigh, Draco heard someone kicking up a fuss to one of the goblins. He looked for the source and saw that he recognized the girl: Pansy Parkinson.

"I have access to this vault!" she yelled at the goblin helping her. "I've been in there many times! My grandfather made the arrangement for this vault to be available to our family when Iola Black married into our family! It belongs to the Parkinson family! There are all sorts of rare items in there! There's even a copy of some rare books by Bradislav Zindurian! You can't even get _Extreme Repairs for Badly Damaged Magical Furniture_ in this country unless you order it from his homeland!"

Draco perked up as he listened to Pansy Parkinson rant to any goblin who was near her. Could the key to his succeeding in the mission he had been given by the Dark Lord lay in a Gringotts vault that Pansy Parkinson had access to? He began to contemplate. How could he get inside the vault without anyone realizing what he was doing?

He remembered something that Pansy would want to keep secret, but would he be able to blackmail her into taking him to that vault? He knew she was a proud girl who cared more about her reputation than anything else. People like that were quite easy to manipulate; Draco should know, he'd let it happen to himself several times.

He decided to act before he could stop himself. He stepped out of line and made his way across the hall to where Pansy had been sat to wait for a goblin to take her to the vault in question. Pansy started as he sat down beside her.

"Draco!" she exclaimed in surprise. "How are you? Are you having a good holiday?"

"Not particularly," Draco answered. _It's about to get a bit better, _he thought. He didn't have time to deal with these formalities. He lowered his voice as he continued. "I need to get into that vault that you just yelled at those goblins about."

Pansy gaped at his abruptness. "Wh-"

"I would be careful about asking questions if I were you," he warned. "And I would think twice before you say no."

Pansy narrowed her eyes at him. "Why? Are you going to threaten me?"

Draco's response was cold as the weather. "No, I'm warning you. I know that you forged your father's name on a check in fourth year for your dress robes. You should be more careful. Your father wouldn't like to know that you forged his name, would he? That his little princess is a lying shrew?"

Pansy opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out. Draco took some small pleasure in this; Pansy had been a nuisance to him for many years, but he'd put up with it.

Finally, she managed to say, "Why do you need to get into the Black's vault?" She seemed to be coming back to herself, shaking off the shock she'd had previously. "It must be something important, or you wouldn't need to trick your way in. You can't get in if I don't cooperate."

Draco cursed inwardly. Pansy was being smarter than he'd ever given her credit for and standing in the way of him and his mission, but he would do almost anything she asked. "What do you want in exchange?" Draco didn't want to blackmail Pansy, because as irksome as she was, she was still Pureblood and a Slytherin.

Pansy seemed to revel now as she thought of what she might want from him. "Take me to the Ministry's Christmas Ball. As your date. I know that you and your family are always invited, and I also know you haven't found anyone to go with yet."

Draco groaned silently as he contemplated the idea of taking Pansy to the party. He'd gone to the Yule Ball with her in fourth year, but that had only been because it had seemed like a requirement at the time that he go with a date, and he'd put it off until the last minute. This was also going to be a lot more public than the Yule Ball had been.

Finally, he said, "All right. You're going with me. Now, how are we going to convince the goblins to let me accompany you down to the vault? They've tightened the security, I know. No one is being allowed to a vault without express permission unless it's their own vault."

Pansy seemed lost for words as she thought about the problem that they both now faced. Eventually, she came up with an answer. "Aren't you related to the Blacks also?"

The plan hit Draco immediately. "That's perfect. The goblins have tightened security recently, they're only letting people down into the vaults if they can prove they're supposed to be there. You come up with some papers that say we're related, and they'll let me down. Don't say you can't, you had no problem doing it for a dress."

Pansy's eyes flared angrily, but she didn't rise to his bait. "Fine. It'll take some time to get all the paperwork together. Not before the Christmas holidays end. We'll have to do it during the Easter holidays."

"Fine," Draco agreed. He didn't care when, just as long as he was able to complete the mission given to him and to protect his family.

* * *

The Christmas holidays ended, and upon their return to Hogwarts, Pansy and Draco began to plan for his break-in. Draco needed to be prepared for every eventuality, have contingencies planned out, and make sure that nothing could go wrong. He didn't tell Pansy the whole situation, of course. That would have been tantamount to madness. It wasn't for lack of trying on Pansy's part, however. Every time they met up to discuss the break-in, she asked him questions about why he needed to get into her vault and what he needed in there. He never answered them except with vague answers like, "None of your concern."

By the time the Easter holidays were about to start, they had all the documents ready and had multiple backup plans just in case they came under suspicion.

"I'll meet you outside the bank at noon," Draco reminded Pansy as they sat on the Hogwarts Express.

"Yeah, yeah," Pansy muttered. She hadn't taken lightly to being blackmailed and had threatened to expose his plans to break into the bank. He knew that she wouldn't, however. She didn't want her own lying ways exposed to her family.

* * *

The next day, Draco waited by the entrance of Gringotts, scanning the few people who entered it as they passed him as he waited for Pansy to show up. The streets of Diagon Alley were fairly empty, the residents either being too scared to come out or having been taken away by Death Eaters. The weather didn't help. The sky was roiling with clouds that downpoured torrential rain on all the travelers. An early season hurricane was blowing through.

As he waited, he thought about his mission. He had to kill Dumbledore. If he didn't, Voldemort would torture him and his whole family. He didn't want to become a murderer, but to protect his family, he would have to. Voldemort terrified him too much to disobey.

After a few minutes, Draco saw Pansy hurrying down the street ahead, and finally, she came up to him, bedraggled and with her hair plastered to her face.

"Do you-"

"Yes, I have the papers," she interrupted him. "Why would I have come if I didn't?"

"Whatever," Draco said. "Let's go." He strode into the bank, and Pansy followed behind him quickly.

They stood waiting in the line for the front desk, and Draco began to tap his foot in impatience.

"Don't you think you should tell me what is in this vault you need so badly you're blackmailing me? I'm going to see it once we're in there, you know?"

Draco had thought of that, but he was still hoping to grab the book before Pansy could see it. He would deal with that when and if it became a problem.

"Maybe," was all he said. "Now, shut up before someone hears you, and we're stopped." He wasn't going to let Pansy ruin this, even if she had been an unexpected obstacle in all of this. However much of an unexpected boon she had been, she could still ruin everything

After a few minutes, they were called to the desk, and the goblin that was there examined them critically. "How can I help you today?"

Pansy stepped forward. "I need to get into the Parkinson trust vault, and I'd appreciate not being looked at like a thief, if you don't mind."

"I'm sorry, miss," the goblin apologized, but it didn't seem particularly sincere. "As long as you can present your paperwork? And your... ah… friend cannot go into the vault with you. We have to maintain the security here, I hope you understand. Dangerous times, you know..."

Draco glared at Pansy, but she said nothing. "I'm her cousin," he finally said, with a disdainful sneer. "I have as much right as her to enter this vault."

The goblin glared at them in suspicion for a moment. "As long as the paperwork is in order, very well."

Pansy passed up the paperwork, and the goblin examined it, holding up a monocle to his eye to view the small words. He examined the signatures at the bottom carefully before he removed the monocle.

"Mr. Malfoy, Miss Parkinson, I hope you realize that this is highly irregular. We will, of course, need to take this back to our examiners to verify that it is authentic. I hope you understand."

Draco didn't wait to see what would happen next. Pulling his wand surreptitiously, he said, "_Confundo._"

The goblin's eyes grew unfocused as he looked from Draco to Pansy, and then to the documents that Pansy had given him. "Everything seems to be in order." He signalled for another goblin. "Take these two to vault nine hundred and ninety-three, Halgin."

The goblin who had been summoned - Halgin - beckoned Draco and Pansy to follow him. As they did, Draco breathed a sigh of relief. The hardest part of the plan was over now. He just had to get the book from the vault without anyone seeing what he was getting, and then get out of the bank.

Before they got on the magical cart that would carry them down to the vaults, Draco grabbed Pansy's arm and hissed, "You nearly blew the mission. Why didn't you speak when we were being questioned?"

Pansy glared defiantly back at him. "I did what you asked. We're down here. I'm not doing more than that. You handled it."

"Well, if that happens again, you'd better be a lot more helpful or our arrangement is off."

The cart ride was its usual chaotic nightmare. Draco hated the Gringotts carts, they never went slow, and the goblins didn't seem to care that the wizards disliked them. Draco suspected that was exactly why the goblins kept them.

Finally, the cart stopped before the vault they needed to enter. "Vault nine hundred and ninety-three." The goblin placed his hand on the door, and the sound of locks clicking could be heard from within. As the vault door opened, Halgin stepped aside. "I will wait here while you are within your vault."

Draco was glad of this. Now he only had to deal with Pansy possibly discovering what it was he needed from the vault. He didn't want anyone to know what he needed, lest they make the connections and realize about the Vanishing Cabinet. That was why he hadn't simply made Pansy go herself.

Pansy and Draco entered the vault and stared around, searching its contents. There was a great deal of silver and gold, which didn't interest Draco. He was wealthy enough, he didn't need to steal money. He walked deeper within the vault, and after a few minutes of searching, finally saw what he was looking for. A stack of books stood in a corner of the vault, and Draco examined them until he found the one he needed.

"A book?" Pansy demanded. "That's all you needed? I could have just gotten that for you or something."

"Yes," Draco murmured. "It was all for a book."

Draco did the final act without warning, so Pansy would be unable to defend herself. "Obliviate." He concentrated, imagining all memories of the book and the planning for the break-in from her mind. Now he knew that no one would discover what he was up to.


End file.
